In the gaming machine industry, there is a continuing need for gaming machine manufacturers to produce new types of games and enhancements to existing games. One industry goal is to attract frequent play by enhancing the entertainment value and excitement associated with the game.
Entertainment value is at least partly explainable in terms of neurological response to a gaming machine interface. Movement and presentation of symbols as seen in slot machine game play have entertainment value for a player. The way that human eyes perceive movement and positioning, and other symbol characteristics influences the entertainment experience. More specifically, visual stimuli may trigger varied neurological responses that some report as excitement.
Although optical neurological research is in its infancy, it is known that visual stimuli is converted from light to signals in the retina and the signals are communicated via the optic nerve of each eye. At one point the optic nerve fibers cross at the optic chiasm where some of the signals from the left eye are communicated to the right hemisphere of the brain, and some signals from the right eye are communicated to the left hemisphere of the brain. The optic chiasm also has pathways that do not cross the signals between hemispheres. Thus, each hemisphere of the brain obtains sensory input from both eyes. The visual sensory signals influence many parts of the brain including the lateral geniculate bodies which communicates with the cerebral cortex and the brainstem reticular formation, which plays some role in attention or arousal. Researchers indicate that many complex movement-sensitive cells of the striate cortex of the brain respond better to stimuli from one direction than to stimuli from the diametrically opposite direction. It has been observed that one direction of movement can produce a lively response in these cells and movement from another direction may yield no response at all.
During slot machine play a set of reels containing symbols spin. The reels initially were mechanical, but modern machines have virtual reels that appear as a matrix of symbols in rows and columns. After a brief period these reels stop spinning, typically from left to right. When all of the reels stop paylines can be identified and displayed across the reels based on the symbols distribution on the matrix of symbols. The payline identification and display are based on a pay table. The paylines may vary in configuration depending on the particular gaming machine and the configuration of the cabinet that the machine that houses the interface on which the reels are displayed.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,641,044 to Gruber discloses paylines can be read from right to left or left to right without changing the probabilities of winning. In this way, if a predetermined number of related symbols appear in alignment on the right side of the interface, a payline can be determined from the right side. Similarly, if a predetermined number of related symbols appear in alignment on the left side, then a payline can be determined from the left side. According to Gruber, the player is offered the option to pre-select which payline approach, or approaches, to utilize prior to commencement of a reel-spin. It is suspected that certain persons can achieve a higher degree of entertainment value when paylines are determined by this selective right-or-left approach.
While the Gruber invention adds to the art of slot machine play, there is still a need to keep players interested, stimulated and to deliver ever-improving entertainment value to the players.